[plazul]

You're correct that America's steel manufacturing facilities were inefficient but we're correcting that and bringing online innovative taconite processing plants and flash furnance mini steel mills. America knows how to compete. But we can't compete with countries that are dumping steel at below market rates.

Many of America's agricultural subsidies should be abolished (President Bush uses them for his ranch) but some serve the purpose of maintaining a steady supply of products while protecting the family farm. We have the cheapest food costs in the world and we're going to keep it that way.

If we eliminated all agricultural subsidies American food stuffs would still be cheaper than those produced in Europe. We believe in fair trade but we're not going to let our guard down untill there's *fair trade* across the board. Witness our half trillion dollar trade deficit with China.